Who gets to be first in line for a COVID-19 vaccine? US health authorities hope by late next month to have some draft guidance on how to ration initial doses, but it’s a vexing decision. “Not everybody’s going to like the answer,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, recently told one of the advisory groups the …

Cases of a polio-like condition in children, called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, may start to spike again starting this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday. But, because doctors believe AFM is caused by respiratory viruses, it’s unclear whether recent measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 might have an impact on the outbreak of AFM …

Obesity should be defined by a person’s health – not just their weight, says a new Canadian clinical guideline. It also advises doctors to go beyond simply recommending diet and exercise. Instead, they should focus on the root causes of weight gain and take a holistic approach to health. The guideline, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal …

From left to right: Dr. Alessandro Sette and Dr. Daniela Weiskopf. Credit: Gina Kirchweger, La Jolla Institute for Immunology Your immune system’s ‘memory’ T cells keep track of the viruses they have seen before. This immune cell memory gives the cells a headstart in recognizing and fighting off repeat invaders. Now, a new study led by scientists at La Jolla …

NEW YORK (AP) — Health experts once thought 2020 might be the worst year yet for a rare paralyzing disease that has been hitting U.S. children for the past decade. But they now say the coronavirus pandemic could disrupt the pattern for the mysterious illnesses, which spike every other year starting in late summer. Scientists say it’s possible that mask …

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned parents and doctors Tuesday that it expects another outbreak this year of a rare but life-threatening condition that mostly affects children. Outbreaks of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a serious neurologic condition that can cause paralysis, typically peak every two years between August and November. The last peak occurred in 2018, when …

What to Know The CDC warned Tuesday that it expects a new outbreak of a virus-linked disease called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM The disease, which resembles polio in the way it paralyzes otherwise healthy kids, spikes every other year around August Parents and doctors should suspect any child with sudden limb weakness in the next few months may have …

We now have a pretty good idea how much COVID-19 vaccines will cost Uncle Sam. Last week, The U.S. government announced a deal with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) to buy 100 million doses of the two partners’ lead coronavirus vaccine candidate for $1.95 billion. That translates to a price tag of $19.50 per dose. But Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) is considering pricing …

A coronavirus vaccine has long been described as the panacea for this pandemic. A magical shot in the arm triggers an immunity — enough immunity among us, and over time, the virus will go away, the thinking goes. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, as the Washington Post reports. The harsh reality: even once we’ve found a vaccine, …

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org. When Karen Tibbals of Washington, N.J. heard that more than 100,000 volunteers would be needed for late-stage clinical trials of four COVID-19 vaccines, she wanted to roll up her sleeves and get one of the experimental shots. Tibbals is 65 and has the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, raising her risk of suffering …